Due to its immersive nature, virtual reality has strong potential for advancing procedural medical training—it allows viewers to experience the entirety of a medical procedure and the associated environment. Awareness of the environment—which can include, for example, fluoroscopy findings, assistants’ actions, team behaviour, and haemodynamic assessments—forms an essential aspect of education and learning for interventional and endovascular procedures. Through the immersive environment provided by virtual reality, this important aspect becomes available in a way that is not possible in a standard educational video or simulator. Virtual reality allows repeatedly returning to the content to observe and review different aspects of the procedure.

CX 2019 will host ground-breaking, first-ever virtual reality live aortic and peripheral arterial cases. The audience will partake in the virtual reality experience of these live cases via 360 video streaming and projection.

Special sessions highlight major topics at CX

An open discussion of the paclitaxel controversy will also be a key feature at CX 2019. The recent meta-analysis of Katsanos et al, published in the Journal of the American Heart Association (JAHA), suggested the need for a reappraisal of paclitaxel-coated balloons and paclitaxel-eluting stents. CX 2019 will undertake an in-depth and independent review of the benefits of paclitaxel in reducing restenosis versus the concerns of increased mortality raised by Katsanos et al.

The future of endovascular aortic intervention is under review following the publication of the draft UK NICE guidelines on abdominal aortic aneurysms. Roger Greenhalgh, principal investigator of the UK EVAR trials on which the draft NICE abdominal aortic aneurysm guidelines are largely based, will propose a new follow-up method to avoid secondary sac rupture and death in a novel way that makes the case for EVAR as the cost-effective standard of care.

Finally, a special session is dedicated to discussion on the Stroke from Thoracic Endovascular Procedures (STEP) study, and the latest findings on reducing the risk of stroke following complex thoracic endovascular procedures will be shared by the study investigators.

New iWounds interdisciplinary programme and workshop

CX 2019 will also introduce a new iWounds village, which features hands-on activities covering wound management for wounds caused by vascular (venous and peripheral arterial disease) and nonvascular conditions (diabetes). With the aim to reduce the number of lower limb amputations due to conditions underlying chronic wounds, this new interdisciplinary initiative will feature three days of iWounds activities, with dedicated iWounds sessions in the Venous and Peripheral programmes, and the main iWounds programme running across half a day.

Source Cardiovascular News

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